File Types for Multimedia Supplements

UMSL ETD’s do not have restrictions on the types of multimedia files used in a thesis or dissertation. However, there are two issues that need to be addressed before choosing a multimedia format: universal access and long-term preservation.

Universal Access
The file format should be non-proprietary, widely used and supported. This will maximize the number of researchers that will be able to use the thesis or dissertation.

Long-term preservation
At some point the technology supporting the multimedia format will become obsolete. UMSL will make every effort to migrate the multimedia files. However, we can not guarantee that the multimedia file will be accessible indefinitely.

We do recommend that students use the following guidelines when using multimedia:

Fonts and smaller files should be embedded in the pdf
The file format should be included in the description, along with a description of the contents.
Students may want to add an appendix with this information.
The file type should be nonproprietary.

Proquest lists the following common file formats as acceptable for submission:

Images:

GIF (.gif)
JPEG (.jpeg)
PDF (.pdr) use Type 1 PostScript fonts
TIFF (.tif)

Video:

Apple Quick Time (.mov)
Microsoft Audio Video Interleaved (.avi)
MPEG (,mpg)

Audio:

AIF (.aif)
CD-DA
CD-ROM/XA
MIDI (.midi)
MPEG-2
SND (.snd)
WAV (.wav)

If you have questions concerning a specific file type, please contact the Graduate School for assistance.